He's pragmatic, so he probably likes capitalism as long as it doesn't threaten him too much. Seems like a good fascist dictator of yours to me, even though I agree that the Capitalists have been stupidly trying to challenge him instead of focusing on making money.

It's so disheartening to see the Russian people throwing away their democratic rights so hard fought over in the 1990s. Its a true shame, I hope for the best for Russia, how long did the last regime last? 75 years? Well, its not that long to wait for freedom again. Nothing against Socialism, just Autocratic rule. I am a Socialist after all.

Until a news segment this evening, I knew hardly anything about the election campaign other than that it was going on (I apparently even didn't look at the first post and thought that the poll really had Putin was really losing, and was surprised to learn that he was way, way ahead). Much of what I learned in the news segment was largely could be inferred anyway from what I had previously learned, that some people thought Putin was becoming autocratic but that he was portraying himself as a man of the people in order to combat it. That the strong social welfare system still in place in Russia is helping Putin is not much of a surprise either.

Do people on this forum believe that the longer Putin remains in power, the less free the elections will become? I'm a little concerned about that, an based on some of the comments, like the one about the Russian people "throwing away their democratic rights", it seems like others her are concerned about that as well.

Sorry if my comments seem laughable, I based them on a credible source, a Canadian newspaper called the National Post. The Democratic Party of Russia, under Yeltsin lost a lot of credit with the Russian people with its high level of corruption. The story talked about how in recent years Putin had taken control of the Government Media and used it to spread his party's message. Also he's been prosecuting critics of the government. By infringing on the rights of the people I'd consider that infringement on their democratic rights. And if they vote it could be seen as throwing them away.

Until a news segment this evening, I knew hardly anything about the election campaign other than that it was going on (I apparently even didn't look at the first post and thought that the poll really had Putin was really losing, and was surprised to learn that he was way, way ahead). Much of what I learned in the news segment was largely could be inferred anyway from what I had previously learned, that some people thought Putin was becoming autocratic but that he was portraying himself as a man of the people in order to combat it. That the strong social welfare system still in place in Russia is helping Putin is not much of a surprise either.

Do people on this forum believe that the longer Putin remains in power, the less free the elections will become? I'm a little concerned about that, an based on some of the comments, like the one about the Russian people "throwing away their democratic rights", it seems like others her are concerned about that as well.

Sincerely,

Kevin Lamoreau

Ha. Ha.

It's just that the old Liberal Democrat joke had been told before...and I don't think we usually do online laughs...

I do think that Putin is infringing Russian civil liberties and undermning their democracy, but I have no idea how far it will go.